Google Sync: sync contacts, calendars and email (push) with iPhone

At last, I have my iPhone syncing my contacts, calendars and email. How? I added Gmail as an Exchange server. How? First, enable Google Sync (you’ll only need to do this if you’re using Google Apps).

Google Sync

After this it’s trivial if you follow the Google help page instructions. Enjoy!

The Sims 3 on the iPhone

I installed the Sims 3 on my iPhone 2 where I am running iPhone OS 3.0. I was a fan of Sims 2 and the Sims 3 uses Mono, which makes me want to buy it all the more, but I didn’t want to spend $50+ for the desktop game. The iPhone Sims 3 was only $9.95 so I bought it. Like most apps on my iPhone the Sims crashes constantly. The game is cute, but doesn’t sustain my interest even through a long flight. I do like how there are new categories for your sims. I selected the maniac category. This means my sim is satisfied by using the beds, toilets and showers of other sims. I give the game 3/5 stars.

Posted in Review, Software, iPhone. Tags: , , . Comments Off »

Mobloggin' with an iPhone

Aaron Fulkerson

I’m attending the Office2.0Conference next week in San Francisco. It’s a good conference that always achieves innovative ways for participants to interact. I’ll actually be splitting my time between o2con and the Data Sharing Summit. My interest in the Data Sharing Summit (organized by Canter and Kaliya) should be clear based on mine and MindTouch’s interest in an Open Web Initiative.

Last year at the o2con we all got iPod Nanos that were preloaded with the conference agenda, speaker bios, etc. It was pretty useful and very cool. The iPhone this year totally took me by surprise. I didn't realize these were included until someone else pointed it out to me and shortly thereafter others in my office were asking to attend the conference, Dude, iPhones! WTF. I got home from work last Thursday and found an iPhone waiting for me. Wow, another surprise. I've been using the iPhone to moblog to Flickr and Facebook all weekend. I'll also moblog here once WordPress 2.2.3 becomes a one-click install from Dreamhost. Currently there is a known issue with the blog via email that was introduced in WordPress 2.2.2, which prevents the contents of the email being posted.

For the record, the iPhone is freaking amazing! I really didn't think I was going to be so stoked about it, but after using it all weekend I'm thoroughly impressed. Mostly it's my new ability to moblog that I like. Also, I'm more synched (contacts, calendar, etc) now that I was with my Blackberry, which I did not expect. Finally, The Google Maps application was enormously helpful all weekend too. My mother-in-law is in town and we went to Hollywood and then another day we did wine tasting in Temecula. The maps app was really helpful. However, there are some things that piss me off about the iPhone:

  • Copy/Paste. There is none. WTF. This is more useful on a small device than it is on a personal computer.
  • GPS. When the iPhone has this…wow. That will be an absolutely magical device. Will someone manufacture an add-on? Please?
  • EDGE network is pretty slow, but it actually doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

So, now knowing how cool the iPhone is would I have spent my own money to buy one? Hell no. Maybe if it had evdo and GPS.

Some iPhone resources I rustled up over the weekend.

Posted in iPhone. Tags: , , , . Comments Off »